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Whispering Tree

by Chris Forbes

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1.
Ritual Entrance 05:30
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2.
Cleaning the Roots 08:32
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3.
Healing Water 08:59
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4.
Prayer Before the Stones 07:53
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5.
Rivulet 08:35
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6.
Beltain Fire 09:11
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about

The summer of 2022 was a pretty amazing summer for me, creatively. Over the course of three months I recorded seven albums either as a side musician, as a duo or under my own name. Whispering Trees was the finale to that remarkable summer. I have for years admired the work of Keith Jarret in his “American Quartet,” both on Impulse and on ECM. So many of those albums are unified works of art rather than collections of tunes. I have had a similar interest over my career too.

Whispering Trees is the fourth large scale jazz composition I’ve written but the first to be recorded. The piece is meant to be a sacred journey with some Celtic elements. The entire piece is based on thematic transformation, which I use frequently in my notated compositions as well. Each composed section uses motives from the opening incantation but transformed in mood to create a large scale suite inspired by Scottish and Irish places of pilgrimage.

The personnel on this album are sort of a dream team group for me. Tom and Dmitry are a rhythm section that are very highly sought after on Unseen Rain recordings. I work with them in many situations including my own trio, the collectives Zone and Quintrepid, and Jack DeSalvo’s upcoming Quartet album.

Jack also appears on this album, bringing his distinctive jazz/classical/folk fusion to the proceedings. Lee Odom is a long time friend of mine for whom I’ve dreamt of writing. She is an amazing multi-instrumentalist on soprano, alto and tenor saxes along with flute and clarinet. There’s even a rumor she is working on oboe. In many ways she is the seed for this album as I wrote each notated section with her distinctive sound and abilities.

The Pilgrimage:
Ritual Entrance begins the suite. It features a percussion heavy backing ensemble with flute and wood flute as well as bass and guitar solos. The melody of this section, which is in C minor, will recur throughout the piece in various guises. A long piano solo transitions into Cleaning the Roots. This is a harmonized tune that is based on elements from the main theme and leads to a lovely guitar solo, another lyrical piano solo and a fiery soprano solo that gradually devolves into a duet between piano and soprano. A thoughtful probling guitar solo leads to the lyrical heart of the album, Healing Waters. The lilting melody in F mixolydian, leads to singing statements on piano, sax and bass which transition into Prayer in the Standing Stones, a restatement of the Entrance theme in D minor. After an improvisation by piano and bass, the tune moves into an “ECM-funk” tempo and the theme is restated by the whole band, leading to a powerful soprano solo which in turn transitions into a duet with the guitar. A long piano solo with trio backing leads to Rivulets and Wells, which features two lovely solos, Jack on the guitar and Lee on the flute. The end of the tune deconstructs into a free Ornette inspired head called Beltaine Fire, which features a twelve tone transformation of the theme. The entire band does free jazz solos which gather in intensity to a final collective improvisation before a final quiet restatement of the Entrance theme in the original key to close the suite on a meditative note.

credits

released November 17, 2023

Chris Forbes - composer, piano, Native American flute
Lee Odom - soprano saxophone, flute
Jack Desalvo - guitar
Dmitri Ishenko - bass
Tom Cabrera - drums, percussion
Recorded at Woodshedd Studio, Westbury NY
Mixed and mastered by Larry Hutter, Los Angeles CA
An Unseen Rain Records Production

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Chris Forbes New York, New York

Pianist Chris Forbes trained as a classical pianist and composer,
began improvising early, first performing at 11. A scholarship from Downbeat sent him to Berklee, dividing his time between jazz, classical and
composition. He studied at Juilliard School with David
Diamond. He's played with Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, Steve Swell, Jason Hwang, Matt Lavelle, Ras Moshe, Lee Odom, Zone, Tom
Cabrera.. ... more

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